History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 10

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 700

USA > Massachusetts > History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I > Part 10

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" YOUR HIGHLY HONORED, the General Court of the Massachusetts. The humble petition of John Pynchon, Eleazur Holliock, and Samuel Chapin, Inhabitants of Springfield, sheweth, We hartyly desire the continuance of your peace. And in exercise of your subirch in these parts, In order where unto we humbly tender or desire of that liberty may be granted to erect a plantation, About fifteen miles Above us, on this river of Connecticut, if it be the will of the Lord, the place being, as we think, very commodious,-sideratis con Sirondo sor,-the con- taining Large quantities of excellent land and meadow, and tillable ground suf- ficient for two long plantations, and work, web, if it should go on, might, as we conceive, prove greatly Advantagous to your Common Wealth,-to weh purpose there are divers monr Neighboring plantatur that have a desire to remove thither, with your approbation thereof, to the number of twenty-five families, at least, that Already appear, whereof many of them are of consideralJe quality for Estates and for the matter for a church, when it shall please God to find op- portunity that way: it is the humble desire that by this Hond Corte some power may be established or some course appointed for the regulating, at their Ist pro- ceedings, as concerning whome to admit and other occurrences that to the glory of God may be furthered, And your peace and happiness not retarded. And the Inducement to us in these desires is not Any similar respect of our owne, but that we, being Alone, may by this means may have som more neighborhood of your jurisdiction. thus, not doubting your acceptance of our desires, wd thus entreat the Lord to sit among you in All your counsels, And remain your most humble servts.

"SPRINGFIELD, the 5th of ye 3d Mo. 1653 .*

" JOHN PYNCHON, " ELEZER HOLLIOK, " SAM'L CHAPIN,"

This petition seems to have been favorably received by the General Court, and the prayer thereof granted in the follow- ing words :

" ATT A GENERAL COURT of Election held at Boston the 18 day May, 1653, IN ANSWER to the inhabitants of Springfield's petition and others thereabonts, this Court doth order, that Mr. John Pinchon, Mr. Holyoke, and some other of the petition's should be appoynted a committee to divide the land petitioned for into two plantations and that the petition" make choice of one of them, where they shall have liberty to plant themselves; provided, they shall not appropriate to any planter above one hundred acors of all sorts of land, whereof not above twenty acors to be meddow, till twenty inhabitants have planted there, whereof twelve to be freemen, or more, which said freemen shall have power to distribute the land and give ont proportions of land to the severall inhabitants as in other townes of this jurisdiction, and that the land be divided according to estates or eminent qualifications, and that Samuel Chapin be joined with Mr. Pynchon and Mr. Holyoke for the dividing of the townes."+

In pursuance of this order the Commissioners appointed thereby performed the duty therein enjoined, and returned to the General Court the following report, to wit :

" Nov. 1, 1654.

" To the honored Generall Court of the Massachusetts. Wee whose names are underwritten, being appointed to divide the lands at Naotucke into two planta- tions, wee accordingly have granted to them that now first appeared to remove thither to plant themselves on the west side of the River Connecticott, as they desired, and have laid out their bounds, viz .: from the little meadowe above theire plantation, which meadowe is called Capawonk or Mattaomett, doune to the head of the falls which are belowe them, reserving the land on the east side of the said river for another plantation when God, by his providence shall so dispose thereof, and still remainet

" Your humble servants,

" JOHN PINCHON, " ELIZER HOLYOKE, " SAMUEL CHAPIN."

Upon the completion of these proceedings a settlement was made at Non-o-tuck, the particulars of which the reader will find related in the history of Northampton contained in the following pages.

It has been said by many, and among others by Mr. Sylves- ter Judd, the learned historian of Hadley, that there was no act of the General Court incorporating the town of Northamp- ton. It would seem, however, that this is an error, as will be seen hy the record below.

If the establishing of government at a place and the ap- pointing of officers to administer the same thereat is not an

* To this record in the town-book at Northampton is the following attestation :

" That which is nlwve written is a true copie, compared with the original ex- hilited in the Ct sitting in Boston in May, 1653.

" Synced and left on file.

" Attos) : EDWARD ROBBINS."

+ Mask, Col. Rec., Vol. 11., p. 208.

1 Mars. Col. Records, Vol. IV., pari I . p. 213.

act of incorporation, what is it? The act of the General Court above referred to may be found in the Massachusetts Colonial Records, Vol. IV., Part I., page 227, and is as follows, to wit:

" May 23, 1655.

" In answer to the petition of the inhabitants of Nonotucke, humbly desiring the ' establishment of government amongst them, theire petition is grannted, and itt is ordered that William Honlton, Thomas Bascome, and Edward Elmer shall and hereby are impowered as the threemen to end all smole canses, according to lawe here, they repayring to Springfield, to Mr. Pinehon, Mr. Holyoke, &c., who are authorized to give them their oathes, as also the constable's oath to Robert Bart- lett."

In a diary kept by Judge Samuel Sewall, while holding court in the Connecticut Valley, in the year 1689, will be found interesting allusions to the customs of the day as well as a flattering reference to Northampton. It is printed in a late volume of the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society :

" Aug. 15 .- Second day. Set out for Springfield ; lodged at Marlborow. Aug. 16. To Quaboag with a guard of 20 men, under Cornet Brown. Between Worcester and Quaboag we were greatly wet with rain, wet to the skin. Got thither before 'twas dark. A guard of 20, from Spgfield, met us there, & saluted us with their trumpets as we alighted.

* *

" Aug. 20 .- Went to the Long Meadow to bring the Maj .- Gen., going toward Hartford. Meet with Joe Noble; with him went to Westfield, and kept Sabbath with Mr. Taylor Aug. 21.

" Aug. 22 .- Returned to Springfield, Mr. Tailor with me. Rained hard in the afternoon and night, and part of the morn, Augt. 23, By which means were not able to reach Quahoag ; and it 'twas thought could not pass the Rivers. So went to Northampton,-a very Paradise. Lodged at the Ordinary, getting to town in the night. Aug. 24 very fair day. Mr. Cook & I went with Mr. Stoddard, & heard Mr. 1. Chauncy preach his first lecture at Iladley. Made a very good sermon. In- vited us to dinner. Went over to Hatfield. Lodged all night with Mr. Williams."

For a history of the planting and development of the towns of Hadley, Hatfield, Deerfield, Northfield, and all the others of the seventy and one towns included within the territory on which this work treats, the reader is referred to the separate histories of the several towns respectively, which will be found placed in their order farther on in this volume.

CHAPTER X. THE PEQUOT WAR. I.

CAUSES OF THE WAR.

AMONG the earliest important events which interested the pioneer settlers of the valley of the Connecticut, was the de- struction of the Pequot Indian nation by the whites in 1636-37. This war occurred so soon after the first settlers arrived at Springfield, and they were then so few in number, that they took but little if any part in it, but its results were of the utmost importance to them. The Pequots were the most pow- erful tribe living in the vicinity of the Connecticut Valley, and their destruction was a great relief to the infant settle- ments.

The situation of the settlements on the Connecticut River at the time was perilous in the extreme. In all the towns from Springfield to New Haven, in the year 1636, there were scarcely two hundred and fifty men capable of bearing arms. The savage tribes of the wilderness surrounding them, whose hunting-grounds reached from the Hudson River on the west to the Narragansett Bay on the east, could, if united, have fallen upon them with a force of four or five thousand warriors. The three most powerful nations were the Proquots, near by, the

HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

Narragansetts, farther east, and the Mohicans, on the west. Their near neighbors, the Pequots, endeavored to unite their sister tribes in a war of extermination against the whites, not only of the Connecticut Valley, but of all New England; but failing to do this, the Pequots entered the contest alone. The result was the total destruction of them as a nation. They were all slain, or scattered as slaves to the English or to the surrounding savage tribes.

This decisive blow doubtless saved the colonies of New Eng- land from annihilation. It struck such terror into the sur- rounding nations that it was forty years before another gen- eration of warriors, under King Philip, again threatened the destruction of the New England people.

The Pequot country was in the southeasterly part of what is now the State of Connecticut, bordering on Long Island Sound, and running northward between the river Pawcatuck, now the western boundary of Rhode Island, and the river then bearing their name, but now called the Thames. It will be seen that the western boundary of the Pequot country was not more than thirty miles distant from the nearest infant set- tlement on the Connecticut River.

The Pequots had overawed the Narragansetts, whose hunt- ing-grounds lay to the east of theirs, but had not yet subjected tbem ; while the Mohicans, their near neighbors to the east, had long paid them unwilling tribute, but were now ready for rebellion.

The chief sachem of the Pequots, whose name was Sas-sa- ens, had twenty-six subordinate sachems, with their people, under his sway.

Sas-sa-cus had become discontented at what he considered to be the encroachments of the English people upon his hunt- ing-grounds in the valley of the Connecticut, and resolved to drive them away.

To effect his purpose, he attempted to unite the neighboring tribes in a war of extermination against the English.

He made overtures to his hereditary enemies the Narragan- setts for a union against the English, and had he succeeded in conciliating them would doubtless have enlisted the Mohi- cans in the scheme. But Roger Williams, at the risk of his life, visited the Narragansett country, and through his in- fluence the ancient hostility of the Narragansetts was too much for the insidious diplomacy of Sas-sa-eus, and the Pc- quots were obliged to enter the contest alone.

Through the influence of Williams, some of the Narragan- sett chiefs even went to Boston in the autumn of 1636, and concluded a treaty of peace and alliance with the English.

Sas-sa-cus was the prototype and forerunner of King Philip, Pontiac, and Tecumseh, and had he succeeded in forming his union of the tribes, the days of the New England people would have been numbered before they had searcely begun their settlements in the New World.

The Pequot war had virtually begun four years before, in 1633, when some Indians belonging to the tribe of Sas-sa-eus murdered two English traders, with their whole company, who had gone up the Connecticut River to trade with the Dutch. These traders were named Stone and Norton.

In going up the river with their crew of six persons they admitted twelve of the natives on board their vessel, and en- gaged others to pilot two of their men farther up the stream. These two men were murdered by their guides, and the twelve Indians on board the vessel the same night rose upon her company, while all were asleep, and put them to death.

Sas-sa-cus, in October of the year following, fearing attacks, both from the Narragansetts and the Dutch, sent messengers to Boston to make overtures of peace.

Ilis envoys agreed to surrender the only two murderers of Stone then surviving, and pay smart-money in the form of wampum and furs, but the Pequots soon grew arrogant and violated their treaty.

The murder of Stone was followed up by the murder of

John Oldham, on the 20th of July, 1636. Oldham, with two boys on board his vessel, was on a trip to the Connecticut River, with whose people he had opened commercial relations. While near Black Island, he was surprised and killed by the Indians. When the intelligence of the death of Oldham reached Boston it occasioned great uneasiness, and Governor Vane dispatched ninety men, under the command of John Endicott, of Salem, in three small vessels, to Long Island Sound, to chastise the arrogant Prquots.

It seems that Endicott did not acquit himself of this trust in a very satisfactory manner. He killed and wounded some of the Block Islanders, destroyed their canoes, burned their houses, and cut down their corn.

Ile then sailed for the Pequot country and demanded of Sas-sa-eus surrender of the murderers of Stone, the delivery of hostages for further good conduet, and the payment of a thousand fathoms of wampum. The Pequots, before this con- ference was ended, discharged their arrows at his men and fled to their forts. After burning some of their wigwams and canoes, and collecting some corn, he returned to Boston with- out loss.

The Narragansetts afterward reported that Endicott killed thirteen and wounded forty Pequots. This movements only served to irritate the warlike Pequots, and Sas-sa-eus, without delay, attempted the union of the tribes spoken of ahove.

Failing in this, and resolving to carry on the war alone, Sas-sa-cus took immediate measures to spread consternation among, and to provoke the resentment of, the whites and their allies.

In October, 1636, they murdered Butterfield near Gardiner's fort, at the mouth of the river, and a few days later took two white men out of a boat and tortured them to death with ingenious barbarity.

During the winter they constantly kept a marauding-party near the fort, burning out-buildings and killing cattle.

In the spring Gardiner went out with ten men to do some farming-work. His party was waylaid by Pequots, and three of tbem slain.

Soon after, two men while sailing down the river were taken out of their canoe, their bodies cut in two lengthwise, and the parts hung up by the river's bank.

A man who had been carried off by the Indians from Wethersfield was roasted alive, and soon after that place was attacked by a hundred Pequots, who killed seven men, a woman, and a child, and carried away two girls into captivity.

THE WAR BEGINS.

The Pequots had now put to death no less than thirty of the English, and the infant settlements on the Connectiont River had become thoroughly aroused to a sense of the impending danger.

The time had come when the question must be settled, once for all, which should hold the land, the white man or the In- dian,-but the two hundred and fifty men were sufficient for the emergeney.

The Pequots numbered no less than a thousand warriors, and had they succeeded in uniting with them the Narragansetts and the Mohicans, the combination could have sent into the field no fewer than five thousand warriors. As there was still danger of such a union of the tribes, no time was to be lost.

Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonies were both solicited for aid. Massachusetts made a levy of a hundred and sixty men, the sum of a hundred and sixty pounds in money, and "ordered that the war, having been undertaken on just grounds, should be seriously prosecuted ;" but such was the emergency that the Connecticut people could not wait till these troops should come up, and a force of ninety men, under the command of Capt. John Mason,-forty-two of whom were furnished hy Hartford, thirty by Windsor, and eighteen

HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

by Wethersfield,-was on the 1st of May dispatched against the Pequot country.

Capt. Mason had seen service in the Netherlands, under Sir Thomas Fairfax, who then formed so high an opinion of his merits that he afterward urged him to return to England and help the patriot cause.

Capt. Mason first settled at the Bay, and while there was a member of a committee to direet fortification at Boston, Dorchester, and Castle Island. Before he came with his fel- low-townsmen to the Connecticut Valley, he had served two years as a deputy from Dorchester to the General Court.

Mason was first sent down the river, with twenty men, to reinforce the garrison at its mouth; but meeting Underhill there, with an equal force from Massachusetts, Mason, leaving Underhill at the fort, returned to Hartford.

III.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PEQUOTS.

On the 10th of May, 1637, Mason set out with his whole levy, besides seventy friendly Indians, for the Pequot country. The whole company embarked in three small vessels. The Rev. Mr. Stone, of Hartford, was chaplain of the expedition, while Uncas, sachem of the Mohicans, led the Indian war- riors.

Upon arriving at Gardiner's fort, at the mouth of the river, Mason added to his forces Underhill and his company of twenty men, and sent back twenty of his own men for the better security of the settlements up the river.

Before proceeding farther, a council of officers was held. Mason had been ordered to land at the mouth of Pequot River (now the Thames), and attack the enemy on their western frontier, but knowing that Sas-sa-cus, expecting to be invaded from that quarter, had strengthened himself accordingly, Mason was desirous of approaching him from the east, and surprising them in their rear; but this would require several days' additional time, and his officers opposed leaving their homes so long, as well as shrunk from disobeying their positive instructions.

Mason, left alone, proposed that the conference should be adjourned until the morning, and that during the night their chaplain, Mr. Stone, should seek divine guidance in prayer. Early in the morning Mr. Stone went on shore, declaring that the captain's plan was the proper one. The council imme- diately determined unanimously, upon the advice of the chap- lain, to adopt the captain's proposal.

The little squadron at once set sail from the fort, and on the following evening (that being the 20th of May) arrived near the entrance of Narragansett Bay, at the foot of what is now Tower Hill, which overlooks Point Judith.

The next day was the Sabbath, which they kept quietly on shipboard, and a storm prevented them from embarking till Tuesday evening.

While here Mason received a message from Providence, from Capt. Patrick, who had arrived there with a Massachu- setts party, requesting him to wait until it could come up. But Mason, deeming that a rapid movement was of more con- sequence than a larger force, concluded not to wait for Capt. Patrick, and with his sixty Mohican allies, and four hundred more Indian warriors, furnished by the friendly sachems of the Narragansetts, on the 24th of May marched twenty miles westward to the Pequot country.

At night the party stopped at a fort, which, being occupied by some suspected neutrals, they invested for the night. On Thursday they marched fifteen miles farther west, and en- eamped at a place lying five miles to the northwest of the present village of Stonington.

They were now within two miles of the principal Indian fort, at which it was evident that no alarm had been given, for the sentinels could hear the noisy reveling within the

place until Jong after midnight. Their Indians, however, had mostly deserted.

Sas-sa-cus had seen the little fleet pass to the eastward along the sound, and supposed the English had abandoned their hostile intentions.

The encampment of Capt. Mason was at a place that is now known as " Porter's Rocks," at the head of Mystic River.

The site of the Indian fort was two or three miles farther down the river, on its western side, toward Mystic village.

It was a palisaded fort, inclosing a circular area of an acre or two of ground within the fort. Along two streets were some seventy wigwams, covered with matting and thatch. At points opposite each other were two gateways leading into the fort, and it was resolved that Mason and Underhill, each at the head of half the Englishmen, should force an entrance through these openings from opposite directions, while the Indians that were left should invest the fort in a circle, to arrest the fugitives, should the attack prove successful.

The little band of Englishmen, wearied by their long march, slept soundly, until awakened in the morning, two hours before dawn.

Before breaking up their camp they took time to join in prayer, and under a bright moonlight set out toward the fort.

The surprise was complete. Mason had come within a few feet of the sally-port which he was seeking, when a dog barked, and the cry of O-wan-ux! O-wan-ur !- meaning Eng- lishman ! Englishman !- was heard within, showing that the alarm was given. At the head of sixteen men Mason pushed into the inclosure, while Underhill did the same on the oppo- site side.

The awakened savages rushed ont of their wigwams in terror, but were soon driven back by the English broadswords and firearms. Again rushing forth, the contest became gen- eral, and there was danger that the English would be over- powered by numbers.

In this emergency Mason snatched a live firebrand from a wigwam and threw it on a matted roof, and Underhill set a fire with a train of powder in his quarter. The straw village was soon in flames. The scene within now beggars deseription. The Indians who escaped the fire were shot down by the mus- kets of the English, and those who escaped from the fort fell into the hands of the surrounding circles of Indian allies, who slaughtered them without mercy.

Underhill, in his account, says: "It is reported by them- selves that there were about four hundred souls in this fort, and not above five escaped out of our hands."

Says another old chronicler : " The number they destroyed was considered to be above four hundred. At this time it was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire, and the blood quenching the flame, and horrible was the sight and seent thereof; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave praise thereof to God who had wrought so wonder- fully for them, thus to inelose their enemies in their hands, and give them so speedy victory over so proud, insulting, and blasphemous an enemy."*

It was doubtless a revolting scene, distressing to humanity ; yet the exigences of the hour demanded the sacrifice. At the most urgent reasons of public safety less than a hundred de- termined men had taken their lives into their hands, and marched into the enemy's country. Had they failed, the result would have been the utter extermination not only of themselves, but of their wives and little ones, whom they had left behind.

The awful conditions of the case seemed to justify the stern means of winning the victory which they employed. " At all events, from the hour of that carnage Connecticut was secure; there could now be unguarded sleep in the long- harassed homes of the settlers. It might be hoped that

* New England's Memorial, page 134

HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

civilization was assured of a permanent abode in Now England." *

Only two of the English were killed, but the number of the wounded was more than a quarter of the force.t

Mason, encumbered by his wounded, had no little difficulty in making his way out of the Indian country. His vessels were to meet him at the mouth of the Pequot River. While slowly pursuing his way he was attacked by another party of Pequots, numbering more than three hundred, who approached from another neighboring fort, tearing their hair, stamping on the ground, and clamoring for vengeance. The Narra- gansetts drove the Pequots away. At ten o'clock in the morning Mason ascended an eminence with his exhausted party, when his eyes were gladdened by the sight of his vessels coming to anchor in the harbor. At evening they all went to rest on board their vessels.

What was left of the Pequots collected in the western fort, and debated the question whether they should fall upon the Narragansetts and the English or seek safety by flight. After a stormy council, they resolved on the latter course, and, set- ting fire to their wigwams, started off on their journey to join the Mohawks on the Hudson. On their way they put to death some Englishmen, and a party of them, some three or four hundred strong, were pursued by Capt. Mason with forty Connecticut men, who had been joined by one hundred and twenty men from Massachusetts under Capt. Stoughton.

The Indians were overtaken a little west of what is now New llaven, eneamped in the centre of a swamp. But few of them escaped. Stragglers of the tribe from time to time were put to death in large numbers by the Mohicans and the Narragansetts, among whom the survivors of the Pequot na- tions were divided by the English and held as slaves.

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History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 10

Author: L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts Number of Pages: 700

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 700